33 runners per meeting? Summer jumping has hit rock bottom and British racing can't just accept this as the norm

York and all of the Knavesmire's sumptuous delights are rightly the centre of attention this week, but its abundant bloom is in stark contrast to the state of some of the summer jumping in Britain right now. 

Small fields are not a plight unique to Britain and the trend has been largely downward in Ireland too. It's a topic often addressed in this space, and one of the main common denominators is the plummeting foal crops, which is driven by the cold reality of a commercial market. 

Unfortunately, the extent to which the jumps scene has become so polarised has obliterated demand in the middle and lower tiers, and one of the upshots is the equine raw material simply isn't being produced to populate a fixture list that is arguably the root of so many of the problems British racing is grappling with these days.